Wikipedia

Liz Lochhead

Liz LochheadHon FRSE(born 26 December 1947) is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster.[1][2]Between 2011 and 2016 she was theMakar,or National Poet of Scotland,[3]and served asPoet Laureatefor Glasgow between 2005 and 2011.

Liz Lochhead
Hon FRSE
Makar
In office
19 January 2011 – 31 January 2016
Preceded byEdwin Morgan
Succeeded byJackie Kay
Personal details
Born
Elizabeth Anne Lochhead

(1947-12-26)26 December 1947(age 76)
Craigneuk,Lanarkshire,Scotland
Alma materGlasgow School of Art
OccupationTeacher, poet, playwright, Makar

Early life

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Elizabeth Anne Lochhead was born inCraigneuk,[4]a "little ex-mining village just outsideMotherwell",[5]Lanarkshire.Her mother and father had both served in the army during the Second World War, and later, her father was a local government clerk. In 1952, the family moved into a new council house in the mining village ofNewarthill,where her sister was born in 1957.[6]Though she was encouraged by her teachers to study English,[6]Lochhead was determined to go toGlasgow School of Artwhere she studied between 1965 and 1970.[2]After graduation Lochhead taught art at high schools in Glasgow and Bristol,[7]a career at which she says she was "terrible"[2]

Career

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Having written poetry as a child and whilst studying at Art School, Lochhead won a BBC Scotland Poetry Competition in 1971,[8]and Gordon Wright published her first collection of Poetry,Memo For Springin 1972 under his Reprographia imprint.[5]

It is often claimed that at this time Lochhead was part of aPhilip Hobsbaumwriters' group, a crucible of creative activity – with other members includingAlasdair Gray,James Kelman,Tom Leonard,Aonghas MacNeacailandJeff Torrington,[9]Liz Lochhead has repeatedly claimed this to be an invention.[5]She has however recalled the support and inspiration she drew from the Scottish poetry scene of the early 1970s and meetings with the elder generation -Norman MacCaig,Edwin Morgan,Robert Garioch– and with contemporaries such as Leonard, Kelman and Gray.[10]Lochhead went on to produce revue shows with Leonard and Gray, including Tickly Mince,[11]and The Pie of Damocles.[12]Other the following years Lochhead published further collectionsIslands(1978) andThe Grimm Sisters(1979) and moved first to Toronto as part of the first Scottish/Canadian writers exchange and later made her home in New York.[8]In 1986 she returned permanently to Glasgow.[8]

Lochhead's success in poetry was rivalled by her writing for the theatre.[8]Her plays includeBlood and Ice(1982),Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off(1987),Perfect Days(2000) and a highly acclaimed adaptation into Scots ofMolière'sTartuffe(1985). She adapted the medieval texts of theYork Mystery Plays,performed by a largely amateur cast at York Theatre Royal in 1992 and 1996.[13]Her adaptation ofEuripides'Medeawon theSaltire SocietyScottish Book of the Year Awardin 2001. Her plays have been performed onBBC Radio 4:Blood and Ice(11 June 1990),The Perfect Days(16 May 1999),Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off(11 February 2001) andThe Stanley Baxter Playhouse: Mortal Memories(26 June 2006). Her adaptation ofHelen Simpson's short storyBurns and the Bankerswas broadcast onBBC Radio 4on Burns Night, 25 January 2012.[14]Her playsEducating AgnesandThebanspremiered in the early 2000s,[15]and in 2011 as part of the Glasgay Festival, Liz Lochhead's playEdwin Morgan's Dreams and Other Nightmarespremiered at the Tron[16]and it was revived three years later as part of the cultural celebrations for the commonwealth games.[17]She has produced many new works for the Oran Mor in Glasgow, includingMortal Memories(2012) andBetween the Thinks Bubble and the Speech Balloon(2014) with Tom Leonard, William Letford, Grace Cleary, and Henry Bell.

Like her work for theatre, her poetry is alive with vigorous speech idioms; later collections includeTrue Confessions and New Clichés(1985),Bagpipe Muzak(1991),Dreaming Frankenstein: and Collected Poems(1984), The Colour of Black and White (2003) andA Choosing(2011). Liz Lochhead also enjoys writing songs and combining poetry with music and she has collaborated withDundeesinger-songwriterMichael Marrato whom she dedicated the poem 'Ira and George'.[18]as well as providing guest vocals on the track 'Trouble is Not a Place' from the 2014 EPThe Bird That Never Flewby Glaswegian experimental hip hop groupHector Bizerk.[19]She has also collaborated extensively with saxophonist Steve Kettley and Dundonian band The Hazey Janes.[20]

Lochhead performs internationally in theatres and literary festivals, as well as appearing regularly at nights around Glasgow and Edinburgh.[citation needed]

Politics

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Lochhead is a republican and vocal supporter ofScottish independence,having performed with pro-independence groupNational Collective,[21]and opined inThe GuardianthatRobert Burnswould have voted for independence.[22]

Lochhead is also well known as a feminist, both from her writing and public appearances;[23]she has said in the past, 'feminism is like the hoovering, you just have to keep doing it.'[24]

In 2012, Lochhead travelled to Palestine, and was deeply affected by what she saw in the West Bank.[25]She has been a firm opponent of the Israeli occupation, and a supporter of the call for a cultural boycott of Israel.[26]In 2014, she was involved in preparingA Bird is Not a Stone,an anthology of contemporary Palestinian poetry translated into the languages of Scotland.[27]

Lochhead is openly critical of Scottish arts funding bodyCreative Scotland.[28]

Honours and awards

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In 2005,[29]Lochhead became thePoet Laureatefor Glasgow, a position she held until stepping down in 2011,[30]when she was named as the second ScotsMakar,[31]or national poet of Scotland, succeedingEdwin Morganwho had died the previous year.[32]She stepped down from this role in February 2016,[33]and was succeeded byJackie Kayin March 2016.[34]

She is currently the Honorary President of the Caledonian Cultural Fellows atGlasgow Caledonian University.[35]and holds honorary doctorates from ten of Scotland's universities.[36]

She was writer in residence atDuncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Designin 1980[37]and later atGlasgow University,The University of Edinburgh,Glasgow School of Art,the Royal Shakespeare Company,andEton.[38][39]

In 2014 she was elected a Honorary Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh.[40]

In 2015 Liz Lochhead was awarded theQueen's Gold Medal for Poetry.[5]Lochhead is only the 11th woman to have been awarded the prize since its inception in 1933, and the eighth Scot.[5]

A statue of her face was erected atEdinburgh Park,along with those of other famous Scottish poets. The statue contains engravings of her poems.[41]

In 2023, at the Book Awards Ceremony in Glasgow, Lochhead was the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award.[42]

Personal life

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In 1986, Liz Lochhead married the architect Tom Logan.[43]The couple lived together in Glasgow until his death in 2010.[44]After his death she wrote the poemFavourite Placeabout their caravan on the West Coast of Scotland.[45]It ends:

But tonight you are three months dead
and I must pull down the bed and lie in it alone.
Tomorrow, and every day in this place
these words of Sorley MacLean’s will echo through me:
The world is still beautiful, though you are not in it.
And this will not be a consolation
but a further desolation.

Published works

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  • 1972:Memo For Spring.Reprographia.
  • 1978:Islands.Print Studio Press.
  • 1979:The Grimm Sisters.Coach House Press.
  • 1999:Bagpipe Muzak.Penguin Books.
  • 1999:Perfect Days.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2000:Medea.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2001:Cuba(withGina Moxley). Faber & Faber.
  • 2002:Misery Guts.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2003:The Colour of Black and White.Polygon.
  • 2003:Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems, 1967–84.Polygon.
  • 2003:Thebans.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2003:True Confessions: And New Cliches.Polygon.
  • 2006:Good Things.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2009:Educating Agnes.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2009:Blood and Ice.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2010:Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off.Nick Hern Books.
  • 2011:A Choosing.Polygon
  • 2012:Liz Lochhead: Five Plays.Nick Hern Books.

Radio plays

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Radio Playsadapted by Liz Lochhead
Date first broadcast Play Director Cast Synopsis
Awards 		Station
Series
25 January 2012 Burns and the Bankers[14] Amber Barnfather Sophie Thompson,John Sessions,Greg Wise,Peter Forbes,David McKay,Angela Darcy,Siobhan Redmond,Phoebe Waller-BridgeandMaynard Eziashi Helen Simpson's satirical and poignant short story, dramatised for radio by Liz Lochhead. Nicola Beaumont (English, partner in a law firm, mother of four) reluctantly sits down to a long-winded corporate Burns Supper. At first impatient with the whisky-fuelled pomposity around her, Nicola finds herself surprisingly moved as the traditional rituals of a Burns Night unfold. What she comes to learn about the eighteenth-century Scots poet brings new self-knowledge and helps her through the night's violent emotions and climactic events. BBC Radio 4Afternoon Drama

Reviews

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  • Mills, Paul (1982),The Individual Voice,which includes a review ofThe Grimm Sisters,in Murray, Glen (ed.),CencrastusNo. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 45 & 46,ISSN0264-0856

References

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  1. ^"Writing Scotland - Liz Lochhead - BBC Two".BBC.
  2. ^abc"Writing Scotland - Liz Lochhead - BBC Two".BBC.Retrieved25 January2016.
  3. ^Kennedy, Maev; Carrell, Severin (19 January 2011)."Liz Lochhead appointed as makar, Scotland's national poet".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved25 January2016.
  4. ^"BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Liz Lochhead".Bbc.co.uk.Retrieved16 May2017.
  5. ^abcdeCrown, Sarah (16 January 2016)."Liz Lochhead: 'You're stuck writing something until you go," To hell with it, I'll tell the truth "'".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved25 January2016.
  6. ^ab"Liz Lochhead | Poetry | Scottish Poetry Library".www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk.Retrieved25 January2016.
  7. ^"Liz Lochhead - Literature".literature.britishcouncil.org.Retrieved25 January2016.
  8. ^abcd"Liz Lochhead (1947 - )".Scottish Women Poets.26 March 2013.Retrieved25 January2016.
  9. ^Peter Childs and Michael Storry (eds),The Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture.Routledge: 2009, p.311.
  10. ^"Liz Lochhead on the 40th anniversary of Memo For Spring".Scottish Poetry Library.Retrieved25 January2016.
  11. ^"The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search".news.google.com.Retrieved25 January2016.
  12. ^"Sorcha Dallas · Works · Alasdair Gray, 'The Pie of Damocles' (Merryhell Theatre), 1983 · Images".www.sorchadallas.com.Retrieved25 January2016.
  13. ^Campbell, Andy."York Mystery Plays: Illumination - From Darkness into Light: Introduction: York Mystery Plays: 1951 to the present day".www.yorkmysteryplays.org.
  14. ^abBBC – Afternoon Drama –Burns and the Bankers
  15. ^"Liz Lochhead | Knight Hall Agency".www.knighthallagency.com.Retrieved25 January2016.
  16. ^"Theatre review: Edwin Morgan's Dreams, and Other Nightmares - The Tron, Glasgow".www.scotsman.com.Retrieved25 January2016.
  17. ^"Edwin Morgan's Dreams & Other Nightmares at Tron Theatre Ltd".Tron Theatre Ltd.Retrieved25 January2016.
  18. ^'Ira and George',The Colour of Black and White(Polygon: 2003), p.8
  19. ^"Interview on STV Glasgow".STV.Retrieved23 January2015.
  20. ^"Liz Lochhead with Steve Kettley | The Gardyne Theatre".www.gardynetheatre.org.uk.Retrieved25 January2016.[permanent dead link‍]
  21. ^"Documenting Yes: National Collective Glasgow Launch Party".National Collective.14 October 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 2 August 2014.
  22. ^"Of course Robert Burns would vote for Scottish independence".The Guardian.24 January 2014.
  23. ^"Memo for Spring | Glasgow Women's Library".7 May 2010.Retrieved25 January2016.
  24. ^"Fail Better -" Feminism is like hoovering, you just have... | Facebook ".www.facebook.com.Retrieved25 January2016.
  25. ^"The journey that changed my view of art and politics".Herald Scotland.Retrieved25 January2016.
  26. ^"Letter: Over 100 artists announce a cultural boycott of Israel".The Guardian.13 February 2015.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved25 January2016.
  27. ^Lochhead, Liz (5 November 2014)."Found in translation: poems from Palestine via Scotland".Red Pepper.Retrieved29 May2021.
  28. ^"Makar Liz Lochhead leads nation's artists and intellectuals as they line up to attack Creative Scotland".HeraldScotland.15 November 2015.
  29. ^"British Council listing for Liz Lochhead".The British Council.Archived fromthe originalon 2 November 2012.Retrieved18 February2015.
  30. ^Kennedy, Maev; Carrell, Severin (19 January 2011)."Liz Lochhead appointed as makar, Scotland's national poet".The Guardian.Retrieved18 February2015.
  31. ^Kennedy, Maev; Carrell, Severin (19 January 2011)."Liz Lochhead appointed as makar, Scotland's national poet".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved26 February2016.
  32. ^"Liz Lochhead confirmed as new Scots Makar".BBC News.19 January 2011.Retrieved19 January2011.
  33. ^"The search for a new Makar begins as Lochhead bows out with a ' je ne regrette rien'".Herald Scotland.Retrieved26 February2016.
  34. ^ScottishGovernment."ScottishGovernment - News - Scotland's new Makar".news.scotland.gov.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 15 March 2016.Retrieved15 March2016.
  35. ^"Liz Lochhead – Honorary President | Glasgow Caledonian University | Scotland, UK".Archived fromthe originalon 25 February 2014.Retrieved21 February2014.
  36. ^"Liz Lochhead confirmed as new Scots Makar".BBC News.19 January 2011.Retrieved25 January2016.
  37. ^"The writings on the wall".The Herald.5 February 1994.Retrieved27 December2015.
  38. ^"Liz Lochhead:: Authors:: Birlinn Ltd".www.birlinn.co.uk.Retrieved25 January2016.
  39. ^"Profile: Liz Lochhead, Scotland".www.scotsman.com.Retrieved25 January2016.
  40. ^"Ms Elizabeth Anne Lochhead HonFRSE - The Royal Society of Edinburgh".The Royal Society of Edinburgh.Retrieved12 February2018.
  41. ^Bell, Raymond MacKean (2017).Literary Corstorphine: A reader's guide to West Edinburgh.Edinburgh: Leamington Books.ISBN9780244644406.
  42. ^"The Saltire Society Book Awards 2024".The Saltire Society.19 April 2024.Retrieved10 September2024.
  43. ^"Liz Lochhead | Poetry | Scottish Poetry Library".www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk.Retrieved29 January2016.
  44. ^"Logan Tom: Obituary: Herald".www.yourannouncement.co.uk.Retrieved29 January2016.[permanent dead link‍]
  45. ^"Favourite Place by Liz Lochhead".www.scottishbooktrust.com.Retrieved29 January2016.
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